


The One with the Necklace

by Softchelles



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Far from home, Peter buys michelle a necklace, So I'm not gonna tag all the random cameos, The damn necklace fic, What Did You Expect, been going to my fave's tags only to find stories centered on other characters., but honestly my biggest pet peeve lately has, ffh speculation, ft. a minor cameo from the content I'm looking for, it's a ffh speculation fic, peter centric I guess, peter parker pov tho, take from that what you will, there's a couple other characters too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 22:06:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17947997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Softchelles/pseuds/Softchelles
Summary: Peter Parker learns a few things. And he wants a few things. He wants to focus on being just Peter for a while. He wants to make Michelle Jones smile. And he wants to give her a necklace.OrThe damn necklace fic





	The One with the Necklace

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, this is absolute garbage, wbk, and I'm not editing it because I've been in a real slump where I don't necessarily LIKE literally any of the words that come out of my own mouth, and that carries over to the words I write on paper. But like, a for effort. And also I wanted to try and distract from a few of the things we've been seeing lately.... 
> 
> You guys can leave me alone now. :-)
> 
> @ softchelles on twitter

Peter learned a lot about Michelle Jones over the course of a few months.

 

For starters, her friends get to call her MJ. He learns that she considers him one after homecoming. 

 

And she’s always been outspoken about the things she dislikes-- overpriced coffee, gym class, Flash Thompson. But Peter starts to pick up on the things she likes. Like yeah, she doesn’t like overpriced coffee, but if it’s tea and it’s  _ good _ , sometimes she’ll splurge and treat herself. She prefers physical paper to e-books, but she has a designated pair of headphones for the days where Coach Wilson decides to actually do his job and she has to switch to audiobooks. And she doesn’t like Flash Thompson, but then again, who does? 

 

She mixes Reese's Pieces with her popcorn. She thinks the Harry Potter movies did a disservice to the books. And outside of a few bracelets, rings, and her (1) pair of earrings, she’s not big on jewelry.

 

At least that’s what he thought.

 

It’s in Venice where he discovers he’s wrong.

 

More specifically, St. Mark’s square-- or Pizzaz San Marco as Eugene kept incorrectly pronouncing the proper name. Mr. Harrington had just finished laying out the day’s itinerary before dismissing them. From there, the group had broken off into smaller groups. Since Ned had naturally gravitated towards his longtime crush but newly labeled girlfriend, Peter was on his own.

 

Well, not entirely.

 

Michelle seemed to be on her own, too.

 

So they ended up being alone together.

 

Just Peter, MJ, and about five hundred hungry pigeons.

 

He let out a curse when one swooped overhead, nearly taking him out in the process. This, of course, sent Michelle into a laughing fit. “Peter. Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a couple  _ birds _ .”

 

“What?!” he asked, shaking his head insistently. He wasn’t afraid of birds. Hell, Spider-man fought the  _ Vulture _ , and he was a thousand times scarier than unpredictable pigeons. “No. I just didn’t see that coming.” 

 

She smirked-- the one where her eyes twinkle like she knows something he doesn’t, before replying-- “Weird. Because usually you have like… crazy good reflexes.”

 

“Uh no. No I don’t.” He cleared his throat, trying to bury some of the defensiveness that crept into his voice. “I have average. Average reflexes. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say they were  _ super _ or anything.”

 

Her smirk only deepened. “Who said anything about super?”

 

There wasn’t a chance to read further into her words because at that exact moment someone decided to tap on his shoulder. “Excuse me, young man,” the woman beamed. “Could you please take a photo for us?” 

 

Peter turned his back to Michelle for just a moment, answering, “of course,” and taking the picture for the stranger and her family. When he turned back, MJ was gone. 

 

He found her looking through the window of a shop on the outskirts of the square. Inside the display was a necklace. The chain was silver, holding green and blue glass crushed into the shape of a heart. Though… he was sure the process of making the necklace was a lot more graceful and complicated than that.

 

“My mom used to have a necklace a lot like that.”

 

Peter paused. MJ didn’t talk much about her family. Peter wasn’t so sure she meant to say it out loud. But maybe she did, because she continued. “I mean it wasn’t  _ exactly _ like that. But it was pretty close. I think it was her favorite. She got it from my grandma, who I’m pretty sure got it from my great-grandma. It was a cool necklace.” 

 

“What happened to it?” he asked slowly, treading cautiously like she would snap out of it at any moment and then snap at  _ him _ for prying into her personal life. 

 

Instead, she looked back in his direction. A small smile-- a  _ sad _ one (his least favorite) stretched across her face. “I don’t know,” came her honest reply, followed by a shrug of her shoulders. “When your dad blows all his money and forgets to pay the storage unit bill, they don’t tell you where your stuff gets sent.”

 

“Hey Jones! Parker!”

 

They both turned in time to see the new kid--  _ Harry _ , running towards them. His right hand gripped his camera. His left held a brown paper bag. “Come feed the birds! So we can get some pics! For the yearbook!”

 

The moment was ended, and Peter knew it was over. He was learning a lot about Michelle, but he knew enough to know that she wasn’t ready to tell him everything just yet. 

 

But if Harry hadn’t ruined the moment, Peter’s phone buzzing in his back pocket would’ve immediately followed suit.

 

“You guys go ahead,” Peter urged. “I should probably check in with the--”

 

“--internship,” Michelle finished for him. “The internship that won’t give you a break, even though you’re an eighteen year old on your senior trip to Europe.”

 

He winced at the harshness in her voice as she recited his cover story. 

 

She was entitled to her secrets.

He was entitled to his. 

 

“Come on, Harry,” she finally sighed dramatically, pulling at the other guy’s arm. “Let’s go feed some pigeons.” 

 

He watched them walk for a moment before lifting the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“Mister Parker.” 

 

The number may have been unknown, but he knew the voice to be Nick Fury’s-- the same Nick Fury that had showed up in his hotel room the night before with the latest save the world pitch. And Peter was flattered really. He was. But he was eighteen and trying to enjoy the last few weeks of adolescence. That was the reason he wasn’t so keen on suiting up again. It had nothing to do with the whole ‘PTSD that comes from fighting a titan and fading into oblivion’ thing. 

 

“Have you thought some more about our offer?”

 

“Mister Fury, sir-- I’m honored. I really am. I just-- don’t know if now is really a good time.”

 

“Is there ever really a good time? Was it a good time when you were given the gifts you’ve been given?”

 

Fury kept talking-- and Peter was sort of listening. It sounded eerily familiar to the ‘great power comes with great responsibility’ spiel Uncle Ben gave him the week before he died. It didn’t do much to help push him towards helping fight this new threat. 

 

“Just keep thinking about it. We’ll be in touch.”

 

The line went dead. 

Peter looked back to MJ, standing with her arms stretched out and acting as a perch for a few feathered friends. Her nose was scrunched up as she stayed perfectly still. He couldn’t help but chuckle. Seems like he wasn’t the only one kind of freaked out by the birds.

 

He turned back to the display, to the necklace MJ said reminded her of her mother. 

And suddenly he knew what he wanted to do.

 

He was walking towards Michelle, the small jewelry bag swinging at his side, and all thoughts of Nick Fury and his proposal were gone. All he wanted now was to focus on Peter Parker. He spent all last year focusing on Spider-man, and look where that got him _. Peter Parker _ wants to give Michelle Jones a pretty necklace, because it’s going to make her smile. He wants her to smile. Something deep within him wants to be the one to make her smile. 

 

No. Helping Nick Fury and what remains of Shield defeat the Elementals is so far from his mind.

 

Until the screaming starts. 


End file.
